The Gazette 1946-49

for the Council to obtain a uniform ruling on the questions arising. As you know, increases have been obtained from the Superior Court Rules Committee in the matter of Supreme Court and High Court Costs and also from the Land Registry and Land Commission and are now in force. The Committee appointed under the Solicitors Re– muneration Act of 1881 have made their Ruling which, in accordance with the regulations made under the Act, have been sent for your Council's observations and these have been duly furnished to the Committee, and it is anticipated that the final ruling of the Committee will be available very shortly. In regard to the Council's application for increased remuneration in the Circuit Court the matter has been the subject of a number of Meetings, of a Special Committee set up by the Council to deal exclusively with this subject, and having regard to the fact that there are so many different scales applicable and that it has been found in practice that very often different rulings are given by different County Registrars on the interpretation of the present scales, the broadest possible representation of the various Circuits was sought on this Com– mittee, and the Council asked a number of Solicitors, outside the Council, for their advice and assistance. I would like to praise the really hard work which they have done and are doing on this Committee. The fruits of their labours, which include the examination in detail of all existing scales of Costs and the examination of statistics bearing on the business of the Court, will shortly go back to the Circuit Court Rules Committee for further dis– cussion, and I can assure you that every reasonable step is being taken to bring this matter to a satis– factory conclusion at the earliest possible moment. We have found, when making applications for increases in remuneration in connection with litiga– tion, that there is a well-founded desire on the part of each Rule-making Committee to keep the cost of such litigation as low as is practicably possible with this desirable object we have no quarrel, but we do feel that in the vast majority of cases the remuneration of a solicitor is only a comparatively small item in the total expense of any case, and it is certainly a fact that in Circuit Court litigation throughout the Provinces the cost of litigation is very often greatly increased by the amount of witnesses' expenses which are allowed. Due to transport difficulties over the last number of years and to the present-day tendency to employ expert witnesses much more frequently than in the past such expenses have tended to increase ; this is no doubt inevitable, but the fact that such expenses appear as part of the account furnished by a solicitor is no good reason why it should be suggested that a solicitor's remuneration should be reduced or

The Chairman addressing the meeting said : LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, As you all know, the absence of the President from our Meeting to-day is due to his indisposition. For some weeks past he has, on doctor's orders, been unable to carry out his presidential duties or in fact attend to any business, but I am very glad to be able to tell you that his enforced period of rest has greatly improved his health, so much so that he had hopes of being here to-day but his medical advisers persuaded him that it would be better that he should be fully recovered before resuming his onerous duties. I am quite sure that I am voicing the feelings of everybody here present when I suggest that from this Meeting a message should go to the President assuring him of our very genuine good wishes for a speedy recovery. As his deputy it is my privilege to act as your Chairman to-day, and on his behalf I welcome you to this our half-yearly Meeting. A well-attended half-yearly Meeting is a matter which your Council looks upon with satisfaction as evidence of the interest taken by the Members in the work of the Society. It is with genuine regret that I have to record the deaths of the following members who have died since our last General Meeting in November : Mr. Joseph Kett-O'Shea, Mr. W. Gordon Bradley (a former President of the Society), Mr. George Carr-Lett, Mr. Arthur G. Joyce, Mr. George F. Montgomery, Mr. William S. Collis, Mr. Frederick H. Hall, Mr. Henry G. Morris, Mr. William B. Scott, Mr. James W. Lane, Mr. John Bristow, Mr. Eugene F. Collins (a former Vice-President of the Society), Mr. Charles J. Spain, Mr. John Wray, Mr. Robert C. Bathurst, and to their relatives we tender our sympathy. In the past six months the Council and its Com– mittees have continued to pursue with unabated vigour their work on behalf of the profession. A matter which has occupied a considerable amount of their attention has been the question of increasing the remuneration of the profession, and it is hardly necessary for me to remind you that, apart from particular scales of remuneration which came into existence for the first time since then, no increase in costs has been granted to solicitors for almost thirty years. When any application for a general increase has to be made it means that representations have to be made to no less than six different bodies, namely, the Committee appointed under the Solicitors Remuneration Act of 1881, the Superior Court Rules Committee, the Land Registry, the Land Commission, Circuit Court Rules Committee and the District Court Rules Committee, and this fact alone makes it difficult